Remember the good ol’ days of typing classes? Doesn’t that feel like another lifetime?
Now, if you want to learn how to type or improve your typing, all you have to do is sit on your couch and use a program from the comfort of your own home, like this one at typing.com. Now if only those programs were around before…
Did you ever take a typing class or did you teach yourself? Perhaps you took a typing class at one point but don’t remember much of it. Either way, will you tell us in the poll below? Remember, it may take a moment (or two) to load. It can be a bit slow sometimes. Thanks!
The Navy taught me to type. I was a communications technician, and in school we learned to type to the music of Chet Atkins. To this day, I’m not a Chet Adkins fan!
I took a typing class in the early 70s because that is where the girls were… then the Air Force ran me through a class as a Radio Operator. Now having worked with computers for 40 years, it was one of the best skills I’ve learned!
Ahhh, Thompson Hall, KAFB.
The memories.
Dad bought a typewriter and lots of whiteout, no spell check on those. With help from the instruction booklet she was pretty good. I’d play with it at night and by 5th grade was on a roll.
When my kids took “typing” 15-20 years ago, it was called “keyboarding”.
Took typing at Monroe High school in Monroe Mich. l and became typist for school newspapers. Lots of good memories
Never took a typing lesson in my life. I don’t need it because I can back space. It’s my favorite key.
When I was 12yo (1960) my Dad told me that if I learned to type I would never be without a job…and he was right! Throughout my professional career, both as an Executive Assistant to a corporate Vice President, and later as a Behavioral Health Counselor, my typing skills served me quite well.
1967 Manual typwritters. So glad I did. Only two boys in class. I used it in journilism class the next year, then constently in college. These skills helped me with programing in college using Punch Card machine to write your computer code(s). OH, bet Emily does not know what a Punch Card is. Ask you dad…
Keep those punch cards in order, lol.
What did you do to your software?? I NEVER had trouble with the polls loading before and now I’ve had a problem with both yesterday’s and today’s. They won’t load!
I have to use Firefox to load the polls, it will not open with Chrome?
Firefox is my main browser and I’ve never had a problem with the polls.
FIX FOR OPENING POLL (at least for me)…On my Android phone, I have both the latest update for Chrome and Firefox. Chrome would not open the poll. Firefox opened up the poll just fine. On my Windows PC, Chrome opened the poll only after I updated to the latest Chrome version. Firefox opened the poll with no problems with the latest update. Hope this helps.
Did this clear back in the early 70’s in Jr High.
In the early ’70’s, my dad insisted that I take typing instead of metal shop. At the time I was not happy about it, but when I walked in to the first day of typing class and saw all the pretty girls I changed my opinion and I decided that Dad was not crazy after all. Now, about fifty years later, I am still using the skills I learned in that typing class. In fact, I just did so while typing this comment!
PS- I got to take Metal Shop the next school year, so I got the best of both worlds.
8th grade summer school. 65 wpm. I am better on a keyboard than this phone texting thing that I’m doing now.
You and me both.
Oh yeah, the manual machines and the IBM selectrics! I went to inter-scholastic contest and bombed out. I was good, but not as good as several of the gals. That’s what happens when you bebop into class late for another routine speed test where everyone else is nervous because they knew what was at stake.
Sure I did – because all the cute girls were in that class! Now it turns out to have been the most valuable course in High School… I guess the joke was on me!
70 wpm on a manual typewriter but when the IBM selectric came out my ability soared to 110 wpm. Sure did mess up my playing the piano lol.
Typing was opposite Latin during the regular year – you could take one or the other but not both. But, given how important both were, I chose to give up free time to take typing during summer school.
Now, looking back, as important as Latin has been in my life, typing has been even more useful. It was the right decision.
Does anyone else remember how the training typewriters had no letters on the keys?
They were all blank. Looking at the keys did no good. It forced one to learn touch typing.
To this day my eyes don’t “know” what the keys are, but my fingers definitely do. In my second career as a RN, my younger co-workers couldn’t understand how I could type without looking at the keyboard. Magic ……..
Yep, during instruction the keyboard was shown on a pull sheet that covered the blackboard. When we had tests or timed typings the teacher rolled it up so we couldn’t see it. My typewriter at home was an Underwood manual. My graduation gift was a portable manual typewriter, used it throughout college.
I took typing in ’65-’66 because I knew it would be helpful in my planned college years. Got my lowest grade in all of my high school classes – an M (We used E S M F grading) but it continues to serve me well.
I took typing class on those old manual machines. When we got our first electric typewriter, I was the first one in the class to test it because I was the fastest typist. I guess I typed too fast, though, because the machine locked up and started squealing! I still prefer touch typing over using my thumbs on a phone.
I remember the class, ’66 Southwest Miami High School, the teacher MR Raemone, use to chant, “hubba hubba sporty, its workey workey time, lets get the words out”.
No AC, sweat on the keys of the old manual typewriters, did enjoy the class the teacher made it fun.
FIX FOR OPENING POLL (at least for me)…On my Android phone, I have both the latest update for Chrome and Firefox. Chrome would not open the poll. Firefox opened up the poll just fine. On my Windows PC, Chrome opened the poll only after I updated to the latest Chrome version. Firefox opened the poll with no problems with the latest update. Hope this helps.
Like many comments here, I took typing in HS in the 70’s, cuz that’s where the GIRLS were! But when PC’s came around, that training turned out to be essential and helped my career also.
Typing class was a required class, every other day with PE on the other day. This was my Freshman year 64-65. So one week I had typing 3 times (M-W-F) then the next week twice (T & T) one got to use an electric typewriter once for about 2 mins, then a girl said she could not push the keys down on the manual.
Accidentally took a “business typing “ class my freshman year of high school instead of a personal typing class. That put me in a classroom full of senior girls. What a year ! Have used the skills learned that year for all my life.
Sexism Warning: Yes, I took a full year of typing JUST to hang with the girls in HS in the early 70’s. I didn’t have the dexterity for it and did poorly. I walked out at the end of the year typing with just 2 fingers, and still do. But I married one of those girls! Well worth it! 😜
I didn’t want to take a typing class – I wanted to be a teacher and you didn’t need typing skills for that (back in 1967). My mother insisted that I needed to take the class, so i did. Loved it, did well in it …,and it became critical in my career. Didn’t become a teacher, but at first, a secretary (at a large aerospace company in Seattle) …then, as word processors & computers came onto the scene, I put my typing skills (and other skills) to good use & ended up teaching computing and finally retiring as a senior manager in Info Technology. Used my typing skills everyday for 35 years! Thanks, Mom!!
Probably the most productive class i’ve ever attended. Keep in mind this was way back in the 50’s when we only had manual typewriters and I and another boy were the only boys in the class. Knowing how to type provided me with options while in the Army that made my army life much easier and enabled me to get my first job after being discharged.
Speaking of Army and typing … I’ll never forget the day the Sgt-Maj came in and asked if anyone in the Troop could type. A few of us could.
“Just the type I need. Grab those brooms and sweep the tank barn floor. … and don’t ever volunteer.” Lesson learned.
I took typing 1 and 2 (2 years). I remember that my typewriter did not have any letters or numbers on the keys. We had to memorize the key locations from a flash card posted on the blackboard in front of the class.. The first year we had to type 50 words per minute and 70 words per minute the second year in order to pass the class. The test we took to pass had to be error free. I passed both years. I can take the same test now only it is 50 and 70 words per half hour. Hunt and peck method. 😂
Well, I learned to type using the Typing Tutor program on my Apple II+ – so I sort of took a home schooling class.
My dad insisted at about age 10-12 (early 60’s) that I learn how to type and do shorthand. He brought home a typewriter, like those in the above picture, and I worked during the summer to learn. I enjoyed it and did well. I also enjoyed the shorthand, but after getting decent enough to please my dad I didn’t keep up with it. One of the first things I bought myself before going to college was a portable electric typewriter. I used it to make money while I was in college typing papers for others.
Thankfully, typing skills transferred to the computer keyboard.
Took typing because it was the only class I could take with my schedule in HS. The teacher required 35 wpm with no mistakes as a minimum to pass. I never could do the touch typing method and still only use the 3 finger and a thumb method. The teacher told me over and over I would fail the class and seemed to be pleased I would. On the last day day of class I did exactly 35 words and no mistakes on the test. She was very irritated I made it!
Senior year in high school..1955.
Like a lot of the other guys here I took a typing class ’cause that’s where the girls were. Turns out that typing and learning to read were the most important things I picked up in 12 years of school. Oh I guess knowing how to use a calculator would be # 3.
I took typing in high school. Manual typewriters. We typed to the beat of music in the beginning of classes, then we would put paper bags over our heads so we couldn’t see the keys. It was quite fun! Today it would be child abuse!
Like many others had typing in HS with typewriters like pictured above. We didn’t have enough typewriters so first we had to memorize the keyboard. Typing served me well in my career. My wife and I made sure our children took keyboarding (as it was called during the 80s). Remember JMJ
Back in 1966 typing was mandatory if you were on the “college prep” track. I was terrible but the teacher bumped my grade one letter because he was a fan of some charity work my dad was doing. It was a handy skill for college papers and then again when computers arrived.
Typing story: On a teacher’s advice, I took typing in high school (70’s) as my handwriting was so atrocious. In the 80’s part of my job was writing procedures. I would use the group’s typewriter to put together a rough version and send it on to the group that finalized and filed it. I got coached by someone in mgt. that as a professional, I wasn’t supposed to be using a typewriter. That was for the ‘girls in the typing pool.’ Served all those old farts right when we got computers and entered the world of email. Yayyy PROFS!
Typing my husband learned in High School, approx ’63-64, has been beneficial in many personal & work circumstances, including second year in Army (’70-71) as draftee. As a lowly Military Policeman in Thailand, a high-ranking officer learned he could both type and write in complete sentences, so he garnered a desk job writing reports in an air-conditioned office, instead of duty such as patrolling bars, packed to the gills with drunken soldiers. We occasionally comment that typing might have ‘helped save his life’ while in the US Army.
I was required to learn touch-typing in high school — though I am typing this with two fingers since I currently have a big bandage in my right index finger. It really slows me down.
Learned in high school and can still touch type and at quite a fast rate. Never had to use it on a job with a typewriter. However, I had a couple of jobs that required data input via a teletype machine (yes, I’m old :-)). I watch people hunt and peck on their computers/iPads and I couldn’t do it…lol! Trying to get my granddaughters to learn!
Started on a typewriter like the one pictured. When my sons started using my computer I made them do a typing program. I don’t know if it helped them but the oldest is a programer/developer and supervisor of same so he has had to type a lot.
Back in the day, I took a typing class as a senior in high school. I discovered the class was full of girls so that was my inducement. Little did I know that skill would be part of my professional success going forward. No, I was not a journalist but typing did indeed play a large part in my career of Engineering. At 72 and long retired, I continue to enjoy time on the keyboard.
Typing class in 1969 in high school. Then, in 1972 when I enlisted in the Air Force I was essentially told, “You took typing in school, you’re now an Admin Specialist”. When I retired in 1993, I could do 80+ wpm on an IBM Selectric and 120+ wpm on a computer keyboard. Today, 27 years later, I might do 50, if I’m lucky.
Typing may have saved my life. I trained, during Viet Nam, as a Combat Engineer. When asked if I could type, I was sent to South Korea rather than Nam with the rest of my company and became Classified Clerk in the I-CORPS Engineers Office. Decades later I learned that my dad had boarded a ship during WWII, headed for Germany. The ship never made it. Before the ship left harbor there went out a call for someone that could type. He was pulled off and made a clerk in the Medical Corps and that is why I was born in New Orleans rather than having never been born..
In high school (back in the dark ages) I took typing in my freshman year, all the girls took typing so I wanted to be around the girls (I was a dirty old man at the age of 14) out of about 25 kids, only 2 were boys. I have never been sorry I took typing, who knew it would help so much when computers (didn’t know what a computer was back then) became so popular.
Yes I did, Tahoe Truckee High School Freshman year, 1964. Didn’t help much as I still H and P when typing on a typewriter or the computer.
It was the most valuable class I took in high school. One day the teacher took us to another room, and we were able to use the electric typewriters. How things have changed.
Typing teacher asked me not to return for the second semester, but I learned the finger position on the board. Still the slowest typer On the computer or phone, but I have good form.
It was still offered when I was in high school, but I took the computer class instead.
Class of ‘89
I took two semesters in high school as I was the only male in the class. Stood me in good stead when I went into the service. I became a Morse Code intercept operator and typed at 120 wpm. When I retired from the Air Force and went into the civilian labor market, I usually typed all of my corresponence since I could type faster than my secretaries. And I had no problem transitioning to computers.
I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering but the class I use the most is the typing class I took with a bunch of girls as a sophomore in HIGH SCHOOL! I use it every day and never use Statics or Dynamics.
My mother forced me to take a typing class in 7th grade. I was the only boy in the class. Fought it tooth and nail until I scored my first kiss! The next year I signed up for advanced business machines…dictaphones, adding machines, programmable calculators…and a whole year of “quality time” with the nicest girls in school. Thanks, mom!
My school district mandated every 10th grade student had to take typing. This was in rural northern Idaho in the 70’s and included male students. Most of my classmates were grateful for the typing class when computers became as popular as TV’s.